Thanksgiving and prayer
I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The apostle Paul enjoyed an excellent relationship with all the congregations that he served with the gospel. In all but two of his epistles, he followed his greeting with a word of thanks to the Lord for what the gospel had accomplished in the particular congregation to which he was writing. Still, there was something special about the congregation in Philippi, a congregation the apostle himself called “my joy and crown” (4:1). Whenever he thought about them and whenever he prayed for the Philippian Christians, a whole host of precious memories flooded into his heart, and each memory filled him with joyful thanksgiving to the Lord.
Whenever he thought about the Philippians and his eventful ministry among them, the apostle must have remembered the special way in which the Lord had called him to bring the gospel to that area of the world: the night vision and the urgent call, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). He must have remembered the first Christian worship service on the European continent, his meeting with a little group of Jewish women who met along the riverbank on the Sabbath Day. He must have remembered Lydia, one of that original group of women, who had enthusiastically accepted the gospel and then immediately opened her home as a temporary lodging place for the missionaries and as a headquarters for the infant church.
Whenever he remembered the Philippians, Paul must have remembered his imprisonment in Philippi, the miraculous midnight deliverance the Lord had granted to Silas and to him, and the subsequent conversion of the jailer and his family. Paul must have remembered how the Philippians had generously sent him a gift to support his gospel work soon after he had left their city, and he must have thought about all the glowing reports he had since received about the Philippians’ faith, love, and loyalty to the gospel.
In all of these things Paul saw God’s gracious hand at work, and for all of them he gave the Lord hearty thanks. Already here in these verses we detect in the apostle’s words the positive, joyful note that will continue sounding like heavenly music throughout the entire epistle.
All of these things and more the apostle includes in our text under the phrase “your partnership in the gospel.” The Holy Spirit’s work in the Philippians’ hearts through the gospel had brought them into a wonderful partnership with the apostle and with all other believers. The essence of that partnership—we sometimes also call it “fellowship”—is a mutual sharing in the blessings of forgiveness and salvation won by Christ and in the new spiritual life the Holy Spirit creates in sinners’ hearts through faith in Christ.
Believers who have been brought together into a gospel partnership joyfully give expression to their partnership. They do this in many ways. They worship, pray, and study God’s Word together. They joyfully acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. They show to one another a special measure of helpfulness and love. They encourage one another in Christian living, and they work together to promote the cause of the gospel in the world.
From the very first day he preached the gospel in Philippi, Paul says, their gospel partnership with the apostle, with one another, and with their fellow believers everywhere had been important to the Philippians. They had been wonderfully active in fulfilling their obligations in that partnership, and they had worked diligently to extend it. As more and more believers were added to their congregation, more and more visible evidences of their partnership in the gospel appeared in their individual lives and in their congregational life.
This gospel partnership that the Philippians shared was a special gift of God’s grace to them. Through the gospel God had continued to nourish and strengthen their faith and to fill them with enthusiasm for the Savior’s cause. Paul was confident that, through that same gospel, the Lord would continue this gracious work until the day of Christ’s return.
The apostle certainly is not advocating overconfidence here. Nor is he implying that once a person has been brought to faith, he cannot lose the blessings God has given. In the very next chapter he urges believers to use diligently the spiritual weapons and powers the Lord has given them to fight against sin and temptation and to grow in faith. But here Paul is encouraging believers with God’s own promise. God graciously brings believers to faith and assures them that, as they continue to use his Word and the sacraments, he will preserve them in faith. Christians’ spiritual security, therefore, does not depend on their own sin-tainted efforts. It rests on the promises and the power of God.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul’s thankful remembrance of the Philippians and their partnership in the gospel, he says, was only right, because he had them in his heart. When Paul wrote these words, he was especially conscious of the gospel bond that united him to the Philippians and to all other believers. He was deeply aware of the common grace that they shared. He realized that the cause of the gospel was not just his cause, but the cause of all believers. Paul knew that the outcome of his appeal to the emperor would somehow have an effect on all the believers throughout the Roman Empire. He wanted the Philippian Christians to know, therefore, that as he defended and proclaimed the gospel in Rome, he had them and their fellow believers everywhere in his heart.
From the beginning of their lives as Christians to the time of the apostle’s imprisonment, the Philippians had happily acknowledged the gospel bond that existed between the apostle and themselves. Just lately they had again shown special concern for Paul by sending both a gift and a servant to assist him. Paul knew too that the Philippian believers continually remembered him in their prayers. The apostle appreciated all these gestures of Christian concern, and he wanted to assure the Philippians of his deep and personal concern for them.
So he added a personal note to complete the picture of his relationship to the Philippian Christians. Calling on God, the judge of hearts, as his witness, Paul spoke of his earnest longing to be with his Philippian friends again. During his absence from them, his heart continued to be filled with tender affection for them, affection founded and patterned on the love of Jesus himself. In that spirit of affection and Christian love, Paul wanted to share his joy with the Philippians, if not in person, then certainly by means of this inspired letter, and he wanted the Philippians to read the letter as a genuine outpouring of that same affection and love.
The importance that Paul places on the gospel partnership he shares with the Philippians has much to say also to us. Today we share a gospel partnership with the members of our congregation as well as with the members of our church body, our synod. Our worship life, our mutual support of the Lord’s work at home and abroad, our encouragements to one another to live as Christians are all expressions of that partnership. A similar expression is the special affection and concern we ought to feel and show for one another.
Our gospel partnership is higher and nobler than ordinary earthly relationships, but too often we tend to regard the precious gospel partnerships of our congregational and synodical memberships too lightly. We are inclined to look upon these partnerships not as precious blessings but as tiresome burdens and obligations. Only rarely do we regard the individuals with whom we share this partnership as special. Our relationships with all our fellow believers, our attitude toward our synod and its work, and the enthusiasm and the zeal with which we go about the tasks the Lord has assigned to us could all be significantly improved. We need to see those relationships as the apostle Paul saw them, as elements of our blessed partnership in the gospel. That, in turn, would make our whole spiritual lives more positive and more joyful.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
The apostle’s prayer of thanksgiving for the Philippians flows naturally from praise to petition. He requests that their love might abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. The Philippians have already given ample evidence of their faith and love. Paul’s prayer here is that they might grow in faith as well as in their desire and ability to bring forth the fruits of faith in words and deeds of love. Since believers are still sinners and will never reach perfection here on earth, there is always room for healthy, steady growth in their Christian lives.
Paul prays that their growth in faith and love might be of the proper kind. Unless it flows from a believing knowledge of God’s love for sinners in Christ, love is only a vague and unstable human emotion. The person who possesses love without insight or discernment may show great enthusiasm. But if he has no perception, no insight or mature spiritual judgment, his enthusiastic love can easily do more harm than good. Paul’s petition here is that the Philippians’ love might not stand still or stagnate but rather abound in connection with spiritual knowledge and insight. He prays that their love might overflow its previous limits, ever maturing into a stronger, wiser, nobler, abler love, and that it might be applied in a truly God-pleasing manner in every area of their lives.
As they grow in a mature Christian love that is coupled with knowledge and depth of insight, believers will be able to make correct decisions. They will be able to properly evaluate the various teachings and philosophies that confront them in their lives and make God-pleasing, moral choices. They will grow in their ability to live the Christianity they profess. When the great day of Christ’s return comes, and the true character of everyone’s heart and life is revealed, their lives will be acknowledged by the Lord as lives filled with fruits of faith, and Christ will be truly honored through them.
This beautiful prayer for the Philippians by the apostle is a model for us as we pray for ourselves and for one another. As we make use of the powerful means of grace, we will experience the joy of growing together in the mature faith that works through insightful love. Then our lives too will glorify our Savior, and we will be found blameless in his sight on the great day of his return.
Philippians 1:3-11
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